


Long Time No See - A Hunger Games Fanfic (Remastered)

by Glowstick_ofdestiny



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Aunts & Uncles, District 12, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Implied Haymitch Abernathy/Effie Trinket, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Multi, Parent Katniss Everdeen, Parent Peeta Mellark, Post-Canon, Rewrite, post-Mokingjay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 13:18:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20489522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glowstick_ofdestiny/pseuds/Glowstick_ofdestiny
Summary: Years have passed after the Mockingjay's rebellion. Gale returns to District 12 and find that a lot has changed...Will Katniss be happy to see Gale? Or will the indiscretions of the past still be fresh on peoples minds when they see him again?





	Long Time No See - A Hunger Games Fanfic (Remastered)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Long Time No See - A Hunger Games Fanfic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3687462) by [Glowstick_ofdestiny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glowstick_ofdestiny/pseuds/Glowstick_ofdestiny). 

> Hello all. This is a re-write I've done of my most popular facfiction 'Long Time, No See - A Hunger Games Fanfic'. I wrote and published the original when I was 15 years old and now, with my 20th birthday only a month away I thought it fitting to give a longer and slightly more fleshed out version of the original. I haven't written much in a while and I just finished re-reading the books too so all I wanted was to get this written. Go check the original out if you want it'll be there. 
> 
> I know in the original I had Katniss' and Peeta's son as a character, but with me adding in Haymitch and Effie and making it longer, I sadly couldn't figure a way to write him in and it all make sense and flow. Add him in in your head as you read if you wish, 
> 
> Enjoy :)

The woods sing their morning song, bright and clear. Soft breezes rustle the leaves and brush against the grass. There is life in these trees; an endless chatter that calms those born to It. It focused her mind; made her forget everything else. 

Crouched, out of sight amongst the reeds on the bank of the lake , she pulls at the arrow-like stems around her. Katniss tubers bob to the surface as she pulls. Every few stems she stops to collect the floating tubers and place them in her bag on the bank. 

Fingers numb from the lake water, an ache in her back from being bent over for too long. Wiping wet hands off on her trouser fronts. She freezes. 

There is a sound that does not belong. 

The snap of a branch under heavy foot falls confirms her hunch. One clear-sighted movement, quiver slung over one shoulder, and the girl is concealed by the foliage of a nearby tree. 

Balanced amongst the tree branches, bow drawn through instinct. There are much bigger, scarier things out here than her after all. 

Though it is not a predator that comes to the clearing by the bank, but a man. Tall in stature with dark hair parted just so. He reminds her of military, of the people that visit school every year from District 2 to give an assembly. 

The bow is lowered. The arrow stays notched. 

The man walks to the bank looking out across the water and onto the hills in the distance. Motionless, in thought. 

Neither of them moves. Watching birds pass and the surface of the lake ripple and shimmer with the rising sun. The man stays fixated as if seeing the remnants of an old memory playing out around him. 

There’s a shuffle in the trees behind him. A crack of a low branch and the thund of a body hitting the ground follows. 

“Who’s there?” The calm of the woods is once again broken. “Hey…woah.” He continues, calmly raising his hands to show he isn’t armed. The tip of an arrow looks him in the eye from between the bushes. 

“You’re not from around here.” His straight black hair and olive skin suggest otherwise; grey eyes staring down at her too. The Seam look – that is how her mother had described it to her once. 

“I – was.” Is all he says after a pause, looking down as if remembering that time “What’s your name? Are you okay?” He asks, but he is met with a familiar stubborn look. 

“You first.” Her arm is growing weak from having the string pulled back, lungs sore from the fall, though she tries not to let it show. 

“Gale. Gale Hawthorne.” He said lowering his hands. Somewhere in her mind the name rings a bell, though she can’t place exactly where she has heard the name mentioned. “Now how about you put the bow down?” 

Cautiously, she lowers the bow; slotting the arrow back into her quiver with the rest. Gale studies her closely, she seems to be weighing things up in her mind. Her eyes turn up to him before flitting away again. 

“I’m Willow,” She says “Willow Mellark.” She says picking herself up from the ground. Eyes trained on Gale as he moves. 

“This yours, Willow?” Gale holds up her bag that she had left on the bank. 

“Don’t touch that!” Bow slung over her back and mud on her trousers, Willow snatches the bag out of his grasp before backing away to the treeline again. 

“It’s alright. You dropped this.” Crouching down he picks up a tuber dropped when the bag was snatched from his hand. He turned the plant over in his hand. “Katniss? Mellark?” 

The rustle of the trees and bushes answer him; and he is alone with the lake and the birds. 

_If you are in trouble, remember climb the nearest tree; if you can’t do that then run for home. And if that doesn’t help then use the signal we taught you. Okay, Willow?_

The rules her parents had told her before agreeing to let her enter the woods on her own, and now she is already down to running through the woods for home. 

Trees and foliage zip past as Willow runs through the trodden pathways back to District 12. The world files past as she runs swatting branches out of the way. Heart pounding in her ears. 

Her surroundings become more and more familiar as she enters the part of the woods closer to home. Trekked a thousand times with her parents since she could walk. Flicking a look behind her for a second, to see if the man from the lake had somehow matched her pace, only showed her familiar things. She eases the pace to a jog. Peering over her shoulder every few steps. 

The tree roots catch at clumsy feet and the ground catches her in its earthy arms. 

Pain rises, the skin red and grazed on the heels of her hands from her body trying to cushion the fall. “Oh no.” she squeaks out. Tears brimming in her eyes as she picks herself up once again. More dirt cakes her trousers; the fabric torn a little at the knee. 

A movement among the foliage startles the young girl. Her feet pick up in a run once again, hands clutched to her chest. 

Gale trudges through the woods, encased in the recollection of a time long past, where such things were outlawed, and fear loomed large. Birds sing around him. Sweet tunes bouncing through the branches. The trees quieten for a moment, a lull in the melody, starting up again with a single uncomplicated four note tune. One Gale recognises immediately. 

A mockingjay in a nearby tree sits in silent for moment before repeating the tune. Like a fever it spreads around him and within, repeating through the branches until the trees are filled with the eerie melody. 

It had been year since that tune had last been sung around him and longer still since it had been used publicly. 

Pine and damp earth, rustling in the underbrush. The way the sun rises through the forest, painting the trees gold in places and throwing shadow across the floor. Sundays. Those precious days. And this melody encasing him. Both belonging to a girl who was always just out of his reach. Elusive as the mockingjays among the trees. Katniss. 

***

“Willow!” A panicked voice calls out. With tears now blurring her vision, the young girl almost doesn’t recognise the familiar face coming towards her. Defeated, she threw down her bow and bag in the meadow. 

“Uncle Haymitch!” Willow yells with relief as he nears her.

“Hey there Sweetheart,” He pushes his greying hair away from his face. His naturally stern look melts into a small smile as he sees Willow is in one piece. She warps her arms around his waist tightly.

“Slow down now.” Haymitch runs a hand over her dark hair in comfort; two braids down her back. 

“Willow?” Another voice calls out across the meadow. “What’s happened?” 

Willow breaks the hug and speaks between sobs. 

“I was in the woods, by your lake Mom…and then this man came…I hid in a tree, like you…Like you and Dad told me…then I feel and he saw me…I got scared…So I ran…and I fell…” She trails off, offering up her hands for her mother to see; grazed and dirty. 

“It’s okay.” Her mother crouches down and pulls her daughter close. “It’s okay Willow.” 

Another figure comes through the treeline into the meadow. Tall, dark and a face Haymitch recognises immediately. “Oh geez…” 

“Katniss?” She looks up at him, a surprised look thrown his way. 

“Gale.” She returns, her tone flat. Katniss reluctantly lets go of her daughter, who has now reduced to a slight whimper. Instinctively she puts Willow behind her, a hand out in front of her acting as a shield. 

Gale thinks to himself. Remembering back: before the rebellion, before the Quell, before her first games. Sat on the rock ledge not far from here, concealed from view by a thicket of berry bushes. 

_A lot of things have changed._

Haymitch breaks in, “I’ll take Willow home. Find Peeta,” eyeing up Gale then Katniss, “Leave you two to chat.” He catches Katniss’ and gives her a wink before turning and walking through the meadow back to District 12. A protective arm encircles Willow’s shoulders. 

***

“How old is she?” Gale asks when he knows Haymitch and Willow are gone. 

“She’s 12.” Katniss replies, their eyes meeting. Gale’s face still resembles that of the boy she had grown up with; back when the districts were ringed with electric fences and people lived hungry and afraid. But the years have taken their toll. Days of hard work and nights with no sleep have etched lines in his olive skin. 

“She looks like you.” He says, a thought escaping his lips. Her dark hair, the braids, the bow – just as he remembered Katniss, with the rabbit in the snare… “Except the eyes.” 

“She has Peeta’s eyes.” 

Katniss picks up the discarded bag, and bow; pushing her hands into her jacket pockets. A long silence follows. The breeze pushes he grass around their feet, and they continue looking at one another. 

“Why are you here, Gale?” Katniss asks, flatly.

After the rebellion calmed down in the wake of Snow and Coin’s deaths, Gale moved to District 2. No phone calls, no letters, no visits; nothing. Katniss guessed Gale had moved on; nothing was the same after the rebellion anyway. 

“Work.” He returns. “Talks at some of the schools.” They kept their distance; a meter of meadow between them. With Gale being known across Panem after the rebellion, even with the years that had passed between then and now, he was still being asked to visit countless schools throughout the Districts. 

Regardless of how much she resents the idea. “Would you like to stay for supper tonight?” The kind thing to do, she tells herself. 

“Yeah, thanks Catnip.” Gale smiles, the old nickname feels right when he says it. As though it was only yesterday since he had last called her it. Katniss, however, simply shrugs off his thanks and the name and begins to walk through the meadow.

“You know the house, I’ll see you later.” 

Gale stands, with nothing much of a goodbye hanging in the air.

*** 

Evening is settling in over the grouping of twelve houses on the outskirts of 12. Victor’s Village it was called when Gale had last been here; one of the only places still left standing in the district after the firebombing all those years ago. Of course Katniss has stayed here after everything. 

Willow sits on the step by the front door, fingers fiddling with daisies picked from the lawn around the houses. Hands bandaged around the bottom leaving her thumb free, her eyes no longer red. 

Gale takes a knee in front of her. 

She looks up at him with big blue eyes before returning to her daisies. A sketchbook and pencil sit open next to her, a delicate pencil drawing of the daisies covers the page. “Hey, I’m sorry about before –“ Retrieving the book and pencil from the step, she gets up and opens the front door. 

“You can come in.” 

Gale follows her inside the house. Once, he would have immediately gravitated towards one of the armchairs by the fireplace. Now, he is locked in place just inside the door. Heart picking up pace in his chest. The walls are the same; the furniture, set out similarly. The house has not changed since the days of whipping posts and fire bombs. The people inside seem alien to Gale, though. 

There is laughter floating downwards, the tread of feet on the stairs; cupboards opening in the kitchen and bottles being pulled out and rummaged through. Cooking; stew bubbling on the stove. “Willow, help me set the table please?” Everything continues, all as though Gale doesn’t exist here. The earth spins on regardless of his unmoving presence in the hallway. 

“You can sit down.” Katniss walks past him into the dining room. Sometime between walking in and now he had made his way to the dining room door before stopping again, unsure of what to do. 

Gale takes the seat closest to him, the head of the table. Katniss sits one chair down from him on his right and doesn’t look at him. Haymitch joins them a moment later, sitting opposite Katniss. 

From the kitchen Willow can be heard recounting her ordeal of a morning to a fresh pair of ears. 

“Mom’s lake…and I fell out of the tree…It wasn’t that high Aunt Effie, promise…I’ve climbed higher.” 

Effie appears in the doorway, Willow following behind; a sly grin on the young girl’s face. Effie’s hair is an artificial gold, eyeliner to match, a soft red on her lips. The clothes still very Effie but with the harsh edge of ‘Capitol’ filed away with time. She shoots Haymitch an unimpressed look. “Why did you not say she had hurt herself? I would have come home sooner!” 

“She tripped in the woods nothing serious. Doubt it’ll be the last time.” He replies with a smirk. 

“At her age we were doing much worse.” Peeta adds from the kitchen, a smile in his voice. 

Haymitch leans back in his chair, pulls the one next to his out a little inviting Effie to sit down. “Oh, and she dragged something back with her too.” He nods his head in Gale’s direction with a smirk. A jest at most, meant in good humor. Or at least Gale assumes. Effie recognises the stranger sitting at the head of the table now and laughs politely. Otherwise the air sits silent 

“Well as long as you are alright, dear.” Effie and Willow share a smile across the table as they seat themselves. 

The woman with the golden hair turns her attention to Gale for a moment. “Gale.” Her breathy Capitol accent still strong as ever. She takes one of his hands in hers and gives him a small smile; grip so light it barely passes as a handhold. Quickly dropped in favour for the soup being placed in front of her, and a more interesting conversation starting up elsewhere as Peeta serves supper. 

A chatter starts. Gale smiles but doesn’t speak often, eats the food he is given. Willow presents new drawings from her sketch book to the table. Between mouthfuls, Peeta smiles when she flicks to the page where she has attempted a study of him. Proportions off slightly here and there, but the face is still undeniably Peeta. Chatter about Katniss’ mother, District 4, a friend Effie ran into when she was way. People are mentioned that Gale does not know, and jokes told that he does not understand the punchlines to. They bounce back and forth until the meal is finished and the chatter dies down. 

“Your aunty Prim would be so proud of you Willow.” Effie’s voice grows quiet, dabbing away a tear that forms in her eye. Peeta squeezes his wife’s hand under the table. Mother holds her daughter close with her other arm. 

The table is quiet for a moment. A unanimous confirmation on what they all already know. She was too young, too gentle…

Willow’s eyes burn holes into Gale, though he quickly averts her stare. Not a trace of hate in the dark blue though. Instead a look of enquiry. Curiosity as to who he really is, why Mom never mentioned him before and doesn’t speak about her sister and the rebellion days together. Willow comes to the conclusion that one day, when she is older, her parents will sit her down again and tell her the stories of the rebellion. Why she is not allowed to look at some of the paintings that Dad does; see the faces that belong to the names Mom sometimes yells in her sleep. Finnick, Cinna, Rue. Why Gale from District 2 is not a welcome guest at their table. 

“I should go – thank you for the food.” Stumbling over his words, and the chair as he rises, Gale exists the dining room. A mumble of goodbyes follow him as he b-lines for the front door, the air suddenly too stuffy to bare. 

Katniss follows him out, stopping on the top step as Gale descends. A moment of hesitation, pause, when he reaches the graveled path at the bottom. The daises Willow had been playing with and drawing, caught in the treads of his boot. 

“I didn’t do it you know,” he looks up at her, light from the windows and the warm inside catching his face. Showing Katniss an aged reflection of the boy she had parted ways with when the Capitol had fallen. “I didn’t kill- 

“Stop.” She cuts in “Not here,” Voice sharp and flat. 

“They needed me in two, work. I couldn’t come back so soon after it all –“ 

Gale couldn’t escape the feeling, the notion that had crossed his mind so many times since they first met. That one day Katniss would be hugging their child in comfort and he would run to the aid of their daughter in the woods. But things happened, rebellions, death, the boy with the bread; and with them Katniss seemed to drift away. And now, he has to be content with watching Katniss and the life that has grown around her, from the outside. 

“I know…Goodbye Gale.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if and when I will post again, you will probably see me in March when I celebrate 5 years of Glowstick_ofdestiny. But until then, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed. 
> 
> Have a wonderful day, and as always, may the odds be ever in your favour. 
> 
> Peace xx


End file.
